In Siem Reap, Cambodia, a tiny NGO called Journeys within our Communities is developing a microfinance program for people living in squatter villages and living on around $1 a day. Last year, with ABV, I visited to help with the project.
To meet the people, see my Flickr snaps and here’s my report.
2 Comments
Mark, I’m interested in what the microfinance loans are used for. When I was in Tanzania recently, I was told that in much of east Africa a common use is mobile phones.
Many of these miniature communications companies are run by women, who then band together to create local telcos — all growing from the bottom up.
That’s right Stil. Mobiles can be the basis of a business, but also a business channel for microfinance. As a business channel the ANZ Royal Wing project in Cambodia is the best example I know of – see here for more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js4H8OrDHPQ. At Grameen Bank, mobiles were so popular that they spawned a separate Grameen company: http://www.grameenphone.com/. Cheers, Mark